A Good Message

Last night I really enjoyed myself.  It was Wednesday, March 26th and I brought a message entitled the "Wow" Moment.  Now I fully confess to the listeners it may not have been one of my best.  There were no life changing points nor some great revelation that called the people to repentance or the altar, but I had a good time!

You see last week as I was reading the 9th chapter of John, an area of the Bible I've read countless times (whenever you don't know what the read in the Bible go to those words in red) tears came to my eyes with a new realization.  I saw something that had always been there but I had just never taken note of it. 

Now I'm not going to put what all it was on here but if you'd like the message just let me know and I'll be glad to mail you a DVD at no charge.

What I saw moved me to tears.  I loved what had always been hidden in plain sight from my deep comprehension.  At those words I laid my head down on the Bible on my desk and began to weep.  The Word of God is SO sacred to me.  I just love how the only true God chooses to speak to us through it thousands of years after it was first penned.  A new favorite saying of mine says the Bible is the ONLY book that reads you!  How true that is.

I wrote some notes on a 3x5 card about the chapter and then stuck them in my Bible with no intention of preaching about it.  A lot of things ministers read and study are for themselves, their own personal devotion and strengthening for the call.  A few are for preaching but more are for the preacher!  I learned long ago that something I may be excited about has no relevance for my congregation.  I can be fired up on it and they care less because it was for me, not them.  So with no intent to share what God had shown me I filed it away in my Bible... until Wednesday morning.

I have a new mid-week series I want to start and my intention was to begin that night, the Holy Spirit however had a test for me.  Sometimes the Lord leads us to do things that are a test of our obedience.  Now if it were some great thing, some daunting sacrifice we might jump at the challenge.  When the test of obedience is in the mundane, everyday, convenience/inconvenience things of life we often disregard them and go on doing things our way not even taking notice of the Lord beckoning us to change a few things.

My church will tell you I've been saying repeatedly "What God tells you to do may or may not be a great success it may even be a failure, but what it truly is is a test of your willingness to obey."

So led by a check in my own spirit I shared the "Wow" Moment.  I don't know if it blessed anyone but me, but it doesn't matter.  I had a (in my best Tony the Tiger voice) grrrrreat time!  The message certainly didn't hurt anyone and there were plenty of "amen"s and laughter, but that message was for me and I loved it.

I wonder what message God will give me today?  I wonder what word He will deliver to you?  Understand He wants to talk to us, spend time with us and bless our lives but first we've got to take time for Him.  My message was basically a long testimony of how an awesome, almighty God took the time to show me something new just to bless my heart.  I hope in sharing I was able to do that for my church as well. 

That would NOT have happened if I hadn't taken time to get in His Word.  By spending a few minutes I was blessed, I was educated, and my church had the opportunity to grasp one of those fragment points of scripture that are often lost in the big picture.  Mountains are beautiful, but you have to dig in them to get the gold!

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and remember, YOU ARE LOVED!

The Tragedy of Compromise

I write this entry with an incredibly heavy heart.  Today there were two events that have reminded me of the truth of the Bible as prophecy is jumping right off of its pages into the headlines.

Currently the retail giant Hobby Lobby is in a legal fight as a very worldly US judicial system appears at first impression to side with those who want to force a Christian company to support birth control.  Now to be honest I personally believe any health coverage should include birth control as long as it is offered to a married couple.  However, as I understand it (and agree) attorney's for HL say offering birth control would lead to other compromises that would directly go against their Bible based standards.   Now I had seen this one coming for months as the beliefs of HL owners the Greene family have been targets of liberal activists for some time.

The other event saddened me even more and I didn't see this one coming.  The Christian humanitarian organization World Vision has chosen to show they are far more "world" than Christian and support gay marriage.  The former Christian organization will recognize same sex marriages saying they are following the trend of some churches and defending this by saying this policy will only be extended to "married" same sex and heterosexual couples.

The foul odor of compromise is in the air.

My heart actually aches over these things because fault lies at the feet of the church.  Yes this was prophesied and we knew it was coming but we've acted as though we had no control to stop it.  What a self-indulgent lie.

For the last 25-30 years Christian voters have repeatedly voted their likes, dislikes, and pocketbook instead of the morals outlined in the Word of God.  I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat what we need in Washington is a true, died in the wool and committed born again believer.  I know a lot of politicians say they are when election time comes around but their voting record and association and support of anti-Christian causes tell a different story.

Let's be honest here.  Christians do not support the yearly holocaust of abortion also known as murder in the name of convenience.  Christians do not support same sex marriage as the Bible is very clear that this form of union is not approved of by God.  Christians do not support the freedom of speech in regard to unacceptable materials in the classroom while the separation of church and state concept has been grossly distorted to remove any mention of God.  These things are not what Christians do and if we have voted for men and women who will then obviously we have misplaced priorities and erected idols in our lives.

For this reason I will never again vote for anyone who will support these kinds of legislation.  It is a matter of conscience that I will not ignore.  I will support those who stand for the Lord unashamedly so that one day He will not be ashamed of me.

Make your decision however you like, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.